Review Revue: Caroline K – Now Wait for Last Year

This is why I love doing this blog. Every once in a while I’ll dig up a record by an artist I’ve never heard of who was blowing minds at KCMU in the ’80s, and discover a new favorite. I might be jumping the gun here – I haven’t actually listened to this album yet – but based on the descriptions I’m reading, Caroline K’s only solo album, Now Wait for Last Year, seems right up my alley, and I’m excited to dig into it.

Caroline K, as you will read below, was a member of the experimental band (or “sound art project”) Nocturnal Emissions, along with Nigel Ayers and his brother Danny, whom she went on to marry. Now Wait for Last Year was the first release on the label Earthly Delights, founded by Nigel Ayers. From everything have read Caroline K led a very full, interesting, creative life. In 2008 she was diagnosed with leukemia and passed away very quickly thereafter in a hospital in Pisa at the age of 50. For neither the first nor the last time, all I can say is “Dear cancer: go to hell.”

“A solo project from one of the members of Nocturnal Emissions. Can a single tone seem repetitive and evocative at the same time? Portions of side one say yes. Check it out by engaging in long excerpts. Similar to Soviet France meets Jeff Greinke on side one. 2-3 is a re-mixed Nocturnal Emissions song without the vocals. On the whole, side 2 is more rhythmically oriented than side 1. Quite a long step from the brutal onslaught of early Nocturnal Emissions. Quite enjoyable.”

“A $1.99 find at Time Travellers!” [I love that this album, titled after a Philip K. Dick novel that involves time travel, then dug up 25 years after its release for this blog, was found at a store called Time Travellers.]

One Comment

Wow! A deep archival find here. I’ve had this record since it came out in 1987 and just never grow tired of it. Ambient, yes. But flavored with touches of melancholy and paranoia. Reissued on cd a few years back.

Ah “Time Travellers.” Legendary downtown record store near 2nd & Pike. I believe the downtown needle exchange occupies the space now where Time Travellers used to be.